Decision Report 201306208

Summary

Miss C complained that, despite knowing that she had been paying the rent for and planned to take over the tenancy of her sister's property, the association had refused to allow her to do so and she was now homeless. She was also unhappy with the way a housing officer dealt with the matter.

We found that the association's housing allocation policy says that if a tenant moves out of their home the association will consider assigning the tenancy to a member of the household. The applicant must, however, have had permission to live there and to have had it as their only or principal home for at least 12 months before they can apply for this. The policy also says that, with the association's written permission, tenants may sublet their property if they are absent on a temporary basis. However, the sublet property will always remain in the name of the tenant, and the person subletting it cannot succeed to the tenancy. All this information was included in the tenancy handbook that Miss C's sister would have received when she took up the tenancy.

We did not uphold Miss C's complaints. Our investigation found that Miss C had not obtained permission to live in the property, so she could not be considered to be assigned it, nor could her sister have sublet the property as she was not going to be absent on a temporary basis. We also found no evidence to suggest that a member of staff acted in an unprofessional manner.